Panel: Not enough qualified manufacturing workers

Dennis Irwin is looking for a few good men — or women — but is having trouble finding them.

At M & M Turning & Manufacturing in Clinton Township where Irwin directs customer development, he lamented what he called a lack of qualified and experienced job candidates.

The company has 20 employees who make engine components for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets and the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner.” Officials there would like to eventually hire 30 more workers.

The firm will pay entry-level qualified machinists $15 per hour, but that wage could top $20 for a person with the right combination of skills and experience, he said.

“It seems like the high level machinist we need today is just not out there,” Irwin said.

Irwin and a handful of other local manufacturing leaders gathered with county and state economic development officials on Friday in Warren to find ways to boost interest in manufacturing jobs that are going unfilled in Macomb County.

Newly released results of a survey conducted by Macomb Community College show that nearly three-fourths of residents feel manufacturing remains a “viable” career choice for young people. The 18-24 age group had the highest positive response, with 77 percent saying an industrial job indeed is a career option for the younger job-seekers. Respondents between 45 and 54 years of age were the most pessimistic, with 34 percent saying manufacturing was not a good employment path.

Lack of available jobs and outsourcing were frequently mentioned as reasons why manufacturing is not a viable way to earn a living, according to the MCC survey.

Members of the think tank hosted Friday by Proper Mold Group hope business and government will work closer and better to develop ways to make manufacturing jobs more enticing. Several acknowledged that offering a decent wage may not be enough.

The group believes officials must step up efforts to:

* Reverse the so-called “brain drain” of young, recent Michigan college graduates leaving the state for Chicago and other areas.

* Improve public transportation so that workers who rely on buses can get to work easily.

* Reach high school graduates, particularly those who are unlikely to go to college or whose families cannot afford higher education, and conduct machine shop tours.

“We need to get kids fired up and interested in this field,” Irwin said.

“There’s no buses down 11 Mile,” said Mark Rusch, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Proper Group. “It’s just so hard for people to get to work in a particular community.”

In Mexico, bus routes include stops at industrial parks, he said.

At Proper Group, the bulk of the work remains auto related, including tooling for front and rear vehicle lighting systems. Combined with global competition and the brain drain, a lack of qualified workers interested in manufacturing and skilled trades can make growth difficult to achieve, Rusch said.

Amy Cell, senior vice president of talent enhancement for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, said public and business marketing campaigns can provide fruitful results to attract qualified job-seekers.

Cell told the industrial representatives that the MEDC’s Community Ventures program offers wage subsidies of up to $5,000 per worker and $3,000 to help offset the cost of uniforms, day care, transportation and other expenses if manufacturers hire ex-convicts or at-risk youths from Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw.

The MichAgain program is aimed at workers in such areas as Silicon Valley and Chicago who were born and raised in Michigan, or attended colleges in the state, to lure them back home.

Cell also said state officials are mulling a $10 million program to provide training in the skilled trades.

Angel Offredi, digital sales and development director at Digital First Media, parent company of The Macomb Daily, suggested that companies with openings should increase efforts to attract passive job-seekers and boost marketing of Macomb County as a place where applicants will want to come.

The informal, roundtable discussion was the second by the think tank focusing on manufacturing employment needs. More meetings are expected to be held.

“This is of critical importance to the county,” Macomb County Assistant County Executive Albert Lorenzo said.

Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development Director Steve Cassin said the department expects to soon add an additional staffer to help Macomb retain businesses.

“We’ve made a concerted effort to help existing companies grow and prosper,” he said.